walk

San Francisco Bay Area(CA) - The path to the White house for women has not always been glorious. The journey has proceeded in fits and starts, with milestones along the way. Echoing the media bias that forced Senator Clinton to suspend her campaign, were the calls of the media and power elite 36 years ago, for Shirley Chisholm to give way to Al Sharpton, a man who although a well known figure, had comparatively little qualifications

WalkAMileinOurShoes.org , Aug 15, 2008

San Francisco Bay Area(CA) - The path to the White house for women has not always been glorious. The journey has proceeded in fits and starts, with milestones along the way. Echoing the media bias that forced Senator Clinton to suspend her campaign, were the calls of the media and power elite 36 years ago, for Shirley Chisholm to give way to Al Sharpton, a man who although a well known figure, had comparatively little qualifications. Justly, and to her credit Congresswoman Chisholm refused to give way. While she did not fully achieve her goal she did receive an honest vote. She received a significant number of delegate votes for nomination and thereby irrevocably made another step in the trail to the White House for woman. Graciously, Hubert Humphrey released his African American delegates to allow them to vote for Chisholm.

However, history has no mention of a gesture based on Chisholm as a woman- even though to be the “first real, viable” woman candidate for President was Ms. Chisholm’s stated goal. Chisholm said, “When I die, I want to be remembered as a woman who lived in the 20th century and who dared to be a catalyst of change. I don’t want to be remembered as the first black woman who went to Congress. And I don’t even want to be remembered as the first woman who happened to be black to make the bid for the presidency. I want to be remembered as a woman who fought for change in the 20th century. That’s what I want.”

There were two firsts for women that year in 1972 - two great women who tirelessly fought for change in the 20th Century. The second was a courageous woman who secured the milestone for woman and Asian Americans, Patsy Takemoto Mink. Congresswoman Mink was of Japanese descent and having grown up in Hawaii, shattered multiple glass ceilings for women. She was the first Japanese American woman attorney in Hawaii, first Asian-American woman to be elected to the Territorial House, first president of the newly formed Young Democrats in 1954, and the first to legislate successfully for school athletics for women, which achieved an opening for women in academics through corresponding scholarships that previously only men enjoyed (She authored Title IX legislation), first woman to run for Hawaii Governor, paving the way for Linda Lingle and Lt. Gov Mazie Hirono.

Due to the McGovern commission’s work to increase representation among delegates by women (1969-1972), percentage of woman delegates had risen from only approximately 13% in 1968 to 40% in 1972 - the year that the Democratic Party achieved the historic first of two women candidates running for Presidential nomination at the same time.

Perhaps the more appropriate gracious show of respect and honor, would have been releasing the women delegates to vote for Chisholm as well as Mink, to support two courageous women candidates, a gesture that would honor what they chose for themselves and reflects their lives work.

Now, 36 years after Shirley Chisholm and Patsy Mink’s trailblazing runs for the White House, Hillary Clinton has finally earned the title of first “real, viable candidate” for women, and has taken Americans much further. Senator Clinton is not only real and viable - she is arguably a presumptive nominee. She has demonstrated that a woman not only can win the White House but if nominated will win the white house for the Democratic Party.

We witness what was only in the imagination a short time ago: Never before has the American public demonstrated its commitment to women’s rights being equal to human rights more fully than by casting 18 million popular votes for a woman candidate - proving without question that the citizen voters of our country have equal faith in a woman to guide our country as our nation’s leader, the President of the United States.

Senator Clinton has not only proven a woman can run successfully and be elected to the highest office in the land - she has transcended the concept of the glass ceiling in some sense by demonstrating that a real viable candidate can also simply happen to be a woman. The extraordinarily high number of popular votes that Sen. Clinton won, and her phenomenal broad base of appeal and connection with the American public from all walks of life, show that her support goes far beyond the majority of the population that women represent, and far beyond those who are most concerned with the status of women in society.

The announcement on Aug. 14th, 2008, confirming that Senator Clinton will be a nominee on the roll-call at the Denver Democratic Party National Convention may be just the thing to boost the convention from a major media event to an historic event of colossal proportions. The honest and open roll-call nomination process is seen as crucial by some, to the success of the Democratic Party in November’s general election.

A Pew Research report of Aug. 13^th, 2008 upheld a consistent worrying trend showing the gap between Obama and McCain narrowing in McCain’s favor. A Rasmussen report of Aug. 15th, 2008, a day after the news of Sen. Clinton on the roll call was released, reports “Barack Obama attracting 44% of the vote while John McCain earns 41%. When “leaners” are included, it’s Obama 47% and McCain 45%.”.

The Rasmussen report should be viewed as uncertain in view of the fact that Obama has previously tracked roughly even with McCain for approximately 9 weeks in a row, and even a 3 point spread that Rasmussen reports today is still within the margin of error.
Contact: folks@WalkAMileInOurShoes.org

Tags: chisholm, Clinton, convention, democratic convention, democratic national convention, democratic party, denver, denver convention, DNC, DNCC, Hillary Clinton, marie wilson, McGovern 1972, media bias, nomination, patsy mink, presidential election 1972, presidential race, roll-call, shirley chisholm, white house project

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 17th, 2008 at 1:03 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.